Refugee crisis: Britain must be prepared to send troops into Syria to set up safe havens, says former Tory Cabinet minister

A refugee camp at the international border crossing Bab Al Hawa, between Syria and Turkey (Chris Huby/MSF) Chris Huby/MSF

David Cameron should be prepared to consider sending British troops into Syria to set up safe havens for refugees, a former Conservative Cabinet minister has said.

Andrew Mitchell, the former international development secretary, called for the UN to organise the “humanitarian safe enclaves” in Syria, insisting it was the best way to tackle the growing refugee crisis that has spilled over from the Middle East into Europe.

More than four million Syrians have fled the country and roughly the same number have been displaced internally.

Andrew Mitchell served as International Development Secretary under David Cameron in the last government

The Prime Minister will set out how many Syrian refugees will be taken in by Britain in a statement to MPs later today but has insisted the best way to help solve the humanitarian crisis was to provide aid to refugee camps surrounding the country.

He has been told by Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary and Labour leadership contender, that foreign aid money being sent to local councils in the UK to resettle refugees must not reduce support for areas around Syria.

George Osborne announced the move to divert international development funds to help local authorities house refugees yesterday.

George Osborne has suggested the Government could push for a vote to bomb Syria even if the next Labour leader opposes interventoin

But the Labour leadership hopeful demanded to know why the Prime Minister was not taking money from the Government reserve, which she said had happened previously. “The reserve was created to provide support when extreme things happen,” she told the Today programme.

Responding to suggestions made by the Chancellor yesterday that the Government could seek Parliament’s backing for airstrikes against Isis targets in Syria, Ms Cooper said the Government would have to explain how it would help the situation in order to secure Labour’s support.

A move by the coalition government to bomb President Assad’s regime in Syria in 2013 was defeated by MPs after Labour opposed the move, a decision that Mr Osborne described as “one of the worst decisions the House of Commons has ever made”.

"I think with something as serious as military intervention you have to look at what the Government is proposing," Ms Cooper said.

"They have to be clear what it is they want to do that will help. In Syria you have the problem with both Isil and (President Bashar) Assad.

The refugee crisis - in pictures

The refugee crisis - in pictures

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A Syrian refugee holding a baby in a lifetube swims towards the shore after their dinghy deflated some 100m away before reaching the Greek island of Lesbos

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A refugee raises a child into the air as Syrian and Afghan refugees are seen on and around a dinghy that deflated some 100m away before reaching the Greek island of Lesbos

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Syrian and Afghan refugees fall into the sea after their dinghy deflated some 100m away before reaching the Greek island of Lesbos

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A refugee cries as he holds a child on the Serbian side of the border with Hungary in Asotthalom

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Refugees stand in front of a barrier at the border with Hungary near the village of Horgos, Serbia

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A refugee from Syria prays after arriving on the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos aboard an inflatable dinghy across the Aegean Sea from from Turkey. Greece sent troops and police reinforcements to Lesbos after renewed clashes between police and migrants, the public broadcaster said, while Syrian refugees on the island were targeted with Molotov cocktail attacks

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Police try to stop refugees going under a fence to board a train at a station near Gevgelija, Macedonia. Several thousand refugees in Macedonia boarded trains to travel north after spending a night in a provisional camp. Macedonia has organised trains twice a day to the north border where they cross into Serbia to make their way to Hungary

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Refugees push each other as they try to board a bus following their arrival onboard the Eleftherios Venizelos passenger ship at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Greece

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Refugees are welcomed by locals after their arrival at the main railway station in Frankfurt, Germany. Over 1,000 more refugees arrived in Germany to cheers and "welcome" signs, but calls grew for a European solution to its worst refugee crisis since World War II

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A young Syrian boy arrives on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing in a dinghy with other refugees from Turkey

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Refugees walk on the railway tracks between Bicske and Szar, some 40 kms west of Budapest, trying to reach Germany

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Hungarian policemen stand by the family of refugees as they wanted to run away at the railway station in the town of Bicske, Hungary

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A family is arrested by local police after their local train coming from Budapest and heading to the Austrian border has been stopped in Bicske, west of the Hungarian capital

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A man is arrested by local police after his local train coming from Budapest and heading to the Austrian border has been stopped in Bicske, west of the Hungarian capital

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More than 2,500 refugees have died trying to reach Europe this year and the struggle continues as they travel through the continent

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Refugees protest in front of a train at Bicske railway station. Hundreds of people, were stranded on a train in Hungary for a second, demanding passage to Germany in a standoff with riot police

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Syrian refugees arrive on the shores of Lesvos island

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Syrian refugees on the Greek Macedonian border

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Refugees storm into a train at the Keleti train station as Hungarian police withdrew from the gates after two days of blocking their entry

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Refugees storm into a train at the Keleti train station in Budapest

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Refugees cross the border between the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece, near the town of Gevgelija, Macedonia. The Gevgelija-Presevo journey is just a part of the journey that the refugees, the vast majority of them from Syria, are forced to make along the so-called Balkan corridor, which takes them from Turkey, across Greece, Macedonia and Serbia to Hungary, the gateway to the European Union, September 2015

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A refugee helps up an exhausted fellow refugee as they cross the border between Macedonia and Greece, near the town of Gevgelija, September 2015

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People breaking through a police cordon and crossing the border between Macedonia and Greece, September 2015

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Refugees pass the border between Macedonia and Greece, September 2015

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A Macedonian policeman carries a child across the border between Macedonia and Greece, September 2015

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Syrians sleep on railroad tracks waiting to be processed across the Macedonian border in Idomeni, Greece, September 2015

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A Czech police officer marks a refugee with a number after more than than 200 refugees were detained, mostly from Syria, on trains from Hungary and Austria at the railway station in Breclav, Czech Republic, September 2015

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A baby is lifted on to the Norwegian vessel ‘Siem Pilot’ during a search-and-rescue mission off the Libyan coast, September 2015

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Budapest's main international railway station ordered an evacuation as hundreds of people tried to board trains to Austria and Germany, September 2015

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People wave their train tickets and lift up children outside the main Eastern Railway station in Budapest, September 2015

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People protest at the Eastern (Keleti) railway station of Budapest, September 2015

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Refugee children sleep in the surrounding green area of the Keleti railway station in Budapest, September 2015

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Syrians cross under a fence into Hungary at the border with Serbia, near Roszke, August 2015

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Refugees who have just crossed the border from Serbia into Hungary walk along a railway track that joins the two countries, August 2015

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Police arrest refugees at Cobham Services on the M25 in Surrey, August 2015

Twitter: @bigwheeluk

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Men hold a boy as they are stuck between Macedonian riot police officers and fellow refugees during a clash near the border train station of Idomeni, August 2015

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A Syrian father holds his children close as his arrives on the Greek Island of Kos, August 2015

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A tourist offers water to Iranian refugees as they arrive by paddling an engineless dinghy from the Turkish coast (seen in the background) at a beach on the Greek island of Kos, August 2015

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A Syrian holds his 30-day-old baby on an overcrowded train as they travel through Macedonia. Tens of thousands of refugees, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, use the Balkans route to get into the European Union, passing from Greece to Macedonia and Serbia and then to western Europe, August 2015

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A man rests on a platform at the train station in Gevgelija, on the Macedonian-Greek border, August 2015

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Refugees react after boarding the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship MV Phoenix some 20 miles (32 kilometres) off the coast of Libya. Some 118 refugees were rescued from a rubber dinghy off Libya. The Phoenix, manned by personnel from international non-governmental organisations Medecins san Frontiere (MSF) and MOAS, is the first privately funded vessel to operate in the Mediterranean, August 2015

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Authorities are being overwhelmed as they try to fight off hundreds of refugees, prompting France to beef up its police presence, July 2015

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People escape from the French Police as they try to catch a train to reach England, July 2015

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A man jumps over a fence as he attempts to access the Channel Tunnel, in Calais, northern France, July 2015

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Two men cling to the roof of a freight truck as it leaves the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone, July 2015

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A man climbs a security fence of a Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles near Calais, July 2015

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Men help a man squeeze through a gap in a fence near the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles in Calais, July 2015

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Refugees climb in the back of a lorry on the A16 highway leading to the Eurotunnel in Calais, June 2015

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A police officer sprays tear gas to men trying to access the Channel Tunnel on the A16 highway in Calais, northern France, June 2015

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Men jump out of a lorry after being discovered by French gendarmerie officers, June 2015

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A man sits under the trailer of a lorry, June 2015

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A Belgian navy sailor passes life vests to refugees sitting in a rubber boat as they approach the Belgian Navy Vessel Godetia, June 2015

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People on the Belgian Navy vessel Godetia after they were saved during a search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast, June 2015

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Iraqis wait as they are detained by Hungarian police after crossing the Hungarian-Serbian border illegally near the village of Asotthalom, Hungary, June 2015

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Syrian refugees walking on train tracks through Macedonia on the Western Balkans migration route, after entering Europe through Greece, June 2015

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A group of people huddle together during an operation to remove them from the Italian-French border in the Italian city of Ventimiglia. Italy and France engaged in a war of words as a standoff over hundreds of Africans offered a graphic illustration of Europe's migration crisis. Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano described images of refugees perched on rocks at the border town of Ventimiglia after being refused entry to France as a "punch in the face for Europe", June 2015

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A man is carried by Italian police in Ventimiglia, Italy. Police reportedly removed refugees from under a railway bridge, June 2015

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A Syrian child holds a drawing as he waits to disembark from Belgian Navy vessel Godetia at the Augusta port, Italy. Around 250 refugees from Syria arrived at the Sicilian harbour from a Damascus refugee camp, June 2015

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A dinghy overcrowded with Afghan refugees arrived on a beach on the Greek island of Kos, May 2015

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An Afghan child is helped off a rib on the Greek island of Kos, May 2015

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An Afghan girl holds the hand of a woman as they arrive on a beach on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, May 2015

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Refugees crossed part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, May 2015

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Afghan refugees arrive on a beach of Kos, May 2015

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Rescuers help children to disembark in the Sicilian harbor of Pozzallo, Italy in April 2015

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A boat transporting refugees arrives in the port of Messina after a rescue operation at sea, April 2015

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Armed Forces of Malta personnel in protective clothing carry the body of a dead man off Italian coastguard ship Bruno Gregoretti as surviving refugees watch in Senglea, in Valletta's Grand Harbour, April 2015

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Rescued people talk to a member of the Malta Order after a fishing boat carrying refugees capsized off the Libyan coast, is brought ashore along with 23 others retreived by the Italian Coast Guard vessel Bruno Gregoretti at Boiler Wharf, Senglea in Malta, April 2015

"In Syria what the whole Government needs to explain, do they want to help Assad?"

She added: "Asking an opposition to respond without seeing what the clear proposals are would not be responsible."

Addressing the refugee crisis, Mr Mitchell suggested the creation of UN safe havens should be built in Syria near its border with Turkey or along its southern border with Jordan, which he said could protect millions of refugees from the conflict that has engulfed the country over the past four years.

"Ideally Britain would not be involved in putting troops on the ground but we should be willing to consider that," the Tory MP said.

"Bear in mind that this is not the offensive action by troops that people in Britain sometimes recoil from, it is a defensive action, it would need to be done under the UN charter, probably with a chapter seven mandate which enables them to defend themselves.

"We would be talking about an international body hopefully composed of troops from Jordan and Egypt and other countries in the region willing to shoulder the burden."